Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks during a campaign stop at Walker Construction in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, on Jan. 31, 2025.
Carlos Osorio | Reuters
Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Tuesday said he was temporarily suspending his province’s planned 25% surcharge on electricity exported to the U.S. after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick agreed to renewed trade talks.
Ford said he and Lutnick “had a productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada” earlier Tuesday.
“We have both agreed, let cooler heads prevail,” Ford told reporters.
The comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated an already hot trade war early Tuesday morning, by saying he would raise tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports to 50%.
Trump announced those heightened tariffs on the heels of Ford saying he would impose the surcharge on electricity imports to Michigan, New York and Minnesota.
After the call between Ford and Lutnick, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro confirmed to CNBC that Trump would not move forward with the additional 25% tariff he had threatened earlier in the day.
Ford said Lutnick agreed to meet with him and the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to discuss a renewed United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
Trump has said he will impose tariffs of 25% on goods imported from Canada beginning April 2.
